Rain on the Scarecrow
by Mister Pineapple
Summary: The most unexpected person, the one you cannot bear to touch, the beginning and the end.(one-shot)


Just experimenting with that nice moody feeling I attempted in Secret Loser.

The comic/anime known as Naruto does not belong to me.

Inspired by the title of a song by John Cougar Mellencamp. It's just dawned on me (and if I've mentioned this before, it's re-dawned) that I get a lot of inspiration and titles from music. Ah well.

Last line shamelessly stolen from Steven King's Pet Semetary and reworked to fit my dastardly needs.

* * *

Ever since he was a child and had stumbled upon his cold dead father, he'd known the world was unfair. 

But it wasn't until now, with this person in front of him, that he decided it was truly cruel.

He always knew that he'd go some day. He just assumed he'd give a good fight.

The silent boy stood at a distance before him, shadowed by the giant mushroom caps above them.

He should have known. He'd lived long enough and remembered far back enough to know that man was a tricky one, and was just as capable of the unexpected as one of his students.

It was weird not seeing the boy crying, and jolting to realize how much his body had grown. The boy used to be bigger than him, not that it gave the other an advantage when they fought. Of course the kid hadn't grown.

He'd been dead for how long. . .?

One black eye and an empty socket stared into his mismatched pair. His once-teammate seemed just as surprised as he. Then again, who wouldn't be? Nothing for more than ten years, only to be wrenched back to life and facing your grown best friend.

He should have expected this. He was in Earth Country, tracking Orochimaru. A simple earth jutsu to lift the boulders and a useful soldier was at that bastard's disposal. All that was needed was a sacrifice, followers just as easily at his beck and call.

Men, women, and children, come one, come all.

The boy seemed to snap out of it, taking a step forward, grit flaking off his dusty body. A joint creaked and popped with disuse, garnering his attention before he looked up in question. Now that he had stepped closer and into better light, the full extent of time and his mortal injuries were in full view.

Marred and mangled, from toe to shoulder, the right side of the boy's body was twisted and disjointed. The left remained undisturbed, looking like a dirty and slightly gaunt male on the cusp of puberty. And, of course, there was the matter of the missing eye.

"Wha-?" the black-haired child rasped before the snake man appeared and shoved a paper into the back of his head, completing the jutsu.

Steam rose and hissed from the small body, crust and dead skin and earthy stuff falling off, revealing rosy flesh, uninjured torso and limbs, the boy that used to be.

Except not.

A new eye filled the empty space. The face was whole.

The boy was just as the grown man remembered.

But there was no personality, no life in those eyes.

Returned from an untimely death, he was no more than a sentinel in the game of war.

Cruel indeed.

Sharingan, like the Byakugan, ceases the instant its host dies.

Obito is no exception, if his still inky eyes indicate anything. But like the good mindless soldier he is, he rushes forward armed only with a rusty kunai. A remnant of his once-life.

Not that it matters.

How ingenious, to use the one person he could not, for the life of him, find it in his heart to stop.

But there was one thing he could do, if only for Obito's sake.

The boy leapt into the air, as direct as in life, coming down in a head-on attack.

Right before contact was made, the grown man pulled something out of his holster, holding it so it pointed up.

And it was over.

"O-Obito . . . " He murmured, slowly dropping to his knees. He couldn't feel the rusty weapon in his heart, but knew his body was shutting down.

Obito rested his chin on Kakashi's shoulder, his belly impaled on the three-pronged weapon. Kakashi's one gift from their teacher.

"No fair, Kakashi . . . "

* * *

Not too satisfied by this story, but the plot is enough to get the cogs rolling. 

I'm not very technology driven (how can I be, spending most of my time in the hospital?) and am having a lot of problems with my computer, so the updates will come a couple at a time unless I'm lucky and can upload a bunch. Two new chapters each of Vogue and Eclipse are being rewritten along with the old chapters. Others are on their way, ranging from merry educators to disallusioned teens to the adventures of searching for a lost chest region.

Pineapple: over and out!


End file.
